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Attendees to Tate Modern are used to unexpected displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an simulated sun, descended down helter skelters, and observed automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like construction modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors imparting narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may seem whimsical, but the installation honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it takes in by 80°C, helping the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "generates a sense of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to change your viewpoint or evoke some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding structure is part of a components in Sara's engaging art project showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, cultural suppression, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also draws attention to the people's issues connected to the global warming, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Components

At the long entry ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of pelts ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a metaphor for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which thick sheets of ice appear as varying conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter food, fungus. The condition is a outcome of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they transported trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren frozen landscape to provide by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in futility for vegetative pieces. This costly and labour-intensive method is having a drastic influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The sculpture also emphasizes the stark contrast between the modern understanding of energy as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate life force in animals, individuals, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be standard bearers for clean sources, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the arguments are grounded in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the discourse of ecology, but nonetheless it's just striving to find better ways to continue practices of consumption."

Individual Struggles

She and her family have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening rules on herding. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a sequence of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his herd, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a extended series of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of four hundred animal bones, which was shown at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

Among the community, creative work seems the sole realm in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|